For more than 20 years the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival has catalyzed creativity, technology and innovation for thousands of global attendees each March in Austin, Texas.
SXSW was the birthplace of emerging user behaviors like the digital backchannel (Twitter), geolocation wayfinding (Foursquare, now Swarm), group chat (Beluga, now Messenger) and social streaming (Meerkat, now Facebook Live). I’ve attended 11 years, presented four times, and now serve on the SXSW Advisory Board, helping develop programming that ensures our thousands of attendees get an experience that leads up to the conference’s legacy.
Last year, space150 hosted a panel on Deep Web and Dark Social (CBS News coverage of our panel), focusing on the changing habits of users sharing more 1:1 and using chat apps instead of public social networks. A year later, that POV proved to be extremely fortuitious, and “dark social was mentioned in any panel that covered social media in 2017.
This year space150 was again excited to produce a panel focusing on emerging consumer behaviors and technology. This one covered the evolution of consumer engagement through emerging consumer tech products, namely Snap Spectacles.
We highlighted our case study in using two of the first pairs to: 1) introduce Spectacles to pro sports for the first time with the Minnesota Wild, and 2) partner with Nike to bring POV trick shot footage through Spectacles to the NBA All-Star game, and more.
Our Chief Innovation Officer, Marc Jensen, and I also attended keynotes and sessions, explored brand activations, and participated in VIP preview events throughout the week.
We have prepared a full presentation on takeaways from the event — specifically covering the future of VR/AR/360, artificial intelligence, innovation labs, and the future of mobile behavior.
If you’re interested in seeing our presentation, hit me up!
GREG SWAN 